1 Chapter 1 The Last of the Dragon Clan

It was late 20th-century Ninji in the Hidden Haze village located in the mountain country far west. The Hidden Haze village was an exceedingly small and secluded village where the Dragon Clan lived. The Dragon clan had lived in this village for centuries and was shut off from the rest of the world. They were their own people and had their own civilization, and way of life. They trained their shinobi in the fire and earth styles. Most of the clan members were extraordinarily strong shinobi, these clan members were set as the village defense system. The clan was very traditional in their culture and the shinobi that defended the village were all men. Only men in the clan were deemed suitable for the title of the ninja. They all lived a peaceful life, there was no war, no violence, and no conflict since they had no ties to any of the outside villages or lands outside of their own.

            The chieftain of the Dragon Clan was the firstborn of every generation. Once the firstborn was deemed healthy from the womb, they were given the spirit of the blood dragon that was transferred and sealed inside. The clan had a handful of very skilled medical shinobi that were women. These women were never to use their chakra and jutsus for anything other than healing and of course, transferring the spirit to the next heir.

            The process of transferring this spirit from one person to the other is an extremely dangerous process that has an exceptionally low success rate. Depending upon the newborn's strength and the power of their will and chakra will determine if they survive the transfer. Most of the time the firstborns would go through the transfer and the spirit would destroy them from the inside out and the child would die at once. This leads the chieftain at the time to continually produce heirs until one is born that can withstand the spirit and the sealing jutsu and live. Sometimes the chieftain and their spouse would spend most of their nights continually trying to get impregnated and they learned to become immune to the feelings of losing a child if they did not survive. This was how our clan was built and how our clan was taught to always suppress emotions and feelings to not distract from what was most important.

            This is where I come into play, my name is Isamu Tatsusageru and I am the first-born daughter of the 5th Chieftain of the Dragon Clan village Kenji Tatsuageru and his wife, my mother, Reina Tatsuageru. Due to our clan's culture, a child that is born female is not qualified to become the heir and is normally tossed aside. Left in the wilderness to rot and die. This is because the clan believes if they do this, it is like the child was never born and is not considered firstborn. However, from what I was told  I was different. My father and mother had been trying to conceive for quite some time after they married. My mother had miscarriage after miscarriage and no pregnancy was ever carried to full term. My father grew angry and thought it had something to do with my mother. He thought, she was not fit to bear children and he would have to dispose of her and find another woman who was able to produce a child. This changed however, on my mother's seventh pregnancy she carried to full term with no issues. The clan's medical shinobi were able to provide her healing and herbs to help the pregnancy continue with no complications. At shy of 9 months, I was born.

            I was told by my mother when I was about five, that I was special and that is why I am the heir to the Dragon Clan and will become chieftain. I asked her, why it was that I lived, since females born to the chieftain were not so lucky. She simply told me it was because I was special. She said when I was born my hair was red as fire, my eyes were golden and shaped as a dragon's eye. The medical shinobi had never seen anything like me in past births. They were stunned and they told my mother and father that this was a sign. This was a sign that meant I was to be the next heir and not to test fate or there could be fatal consequences on our village and our bloodline.

            My mother also told me that my father had not been happy with this for some time after I was born. He would neglect me and my mother and would not be able to be in my presence. My mother said this was because my father was a very traditional man and when something messes with tradition, it throws the whole clan off balance. My mother would tell me not to worry, and that my father would come around someday. He would see me as a special girl and a very qualified cheiftan.

When I was with my father during the day trying to learn what a Chieftain of the village does and what they are responsible for, he would act like I was not there. He would not answer any of my questions. I eventually stopped asking him and began to take notes in a journal. I took notes on his demeanor when he dealt with the other clan members based on their status and gender. I would observe how he ran our small little village and how he ordered our shinobi. I learned a lot actually, I had at least 4 to 5 journals full of information and observations of my father and how he ran our clan. I was able to go to our library and asked for assistance from our medical shinobi to provide me with books on our culture and clan chieftains. I spent hours every day in our library reading about our culture, land, and history.

            I spent most of my childhood alone,  in the library or my father's shadow. There were very few children in our village at the time, those few children stayed extremely far away from me. They would say it was because I was scary and different than anyone they had ever seen. They use to see me coming and would yell about how I would turn into a dragon, pluck them up, and take them to my lair to devour them, skin, and bone. This was an extremely popular story and opinion of me throughout our clan. Even adults would evade me because of this. They would whisper and always try to stay as far away from me as possible. I did not mind though, because one day, I was going to prove everyone wrong. One day when I am old enough and I take over from my father, I will show everyone how strong of a chieftain I can be. That will be the day when all those rumors will be put to rest, and they will finally respect me. They all will look up to me and praise me as a wonderful leader. I am going to become the most powerful chieftain our clan has ever seen!

The only person in the whole village who truly saw me as a person and who genuinely cared for me was my mother. She was such a loving, caring, sweet person. She would always hold me when I got home and would sit with me as I told her all I learned that day. She would tell me stories of when I was younger and stories of our past. She would cook me dinner, lay me to rest, and sleep next to me all night. She would hold me close and never let go, and this was the only time I felt like I existed. I loved my mother dearly, and every day I would do my best to make her proud and help her as much as I could. Since I was born and my father became distant from us, she was alone in our home all day and night. I tried not to leave her for too long during the day and I ensured I was with her every night. She never showed her true emotions to me though, no matter what the day brought she always greeted me with a smile and a hug. We lived our days in our home cooking and cleaning, her teaching me everything I would ever need to know. She would always make me feel better if I came home after the other villagers and their children were nasty to me. She always knew just what to do and what to say so that I would forget everything. I loved my mother more than anything in the world.